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Also by Kate Douglas:
Wolf Tales
“Chanku Rising” in Sexy Beast
Wolf Tales II
“Camille’s Dawn” in Wild Nights
Wolf Tales III
“Chanku Fallen” in Sexy Beast II
Wolf Tales IV
“Chanku Journey” in Sexy Beast III
Wolf Tales V
“Chanku Destiny” in Sexy Beast IV
Wolf Tales VI
“Chanku Wild” in Sexy Beast V
Wolf Tales VII
“Chanku Honor” in Sexy Beast VI
Wolf Tales VIII
“Chanku Challenge” in Sexy Beast VII
Wolf Tales 9
KATE DOUGLAS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
Dedication
This series has taken me places I never expected to go, but it’s a journey I freely admit I haven’t made entirely under my own power. I’ve had the support of my agent, Jessica Faust of BookEnds LLC, who moves beyond any superlatives I can possibly conjure up—I consider her my friend, my mentor and my advisor—as well as a fantastic agent, one whose instincts are always right on target. My editor, Audrey LaFehr, gives me the kind of freedom many writers only dream of. Without her amazing support, Wolf Tales would not exist, and I can never thank her enough for the opportunities she and Kensington Publishing continue to give to me.
My thanks, as always, to my generous and talented beta readers: Karen Woods, Ann Jacobs, Sheri Fogarty, Camille Anthony, and Rose Toubbeh. These wonderful women find my mistakes and keep me on track. Their impressive skills combined with some truly wicked humor make the entire process of creating each new book in a continuing series a lot more fun than it probably should be. A special thanks to Rose for her expert suggestions regarding the California prison system—any mistakes in the story are my own, but Mik and AJ’s time in Folsom made a lot more sense after Rose pointed out quite a few things I needed to know.
To my readers—I can’t thank you enough. Many of you have become my friends and confidants over the years. Your support is a powerful incentive every day when I sit down to write.
Last of all, to my husband. There really are no words—and “thank you” doesn’t even come close.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 1
A flash of silver streaked the Pacific as the gibbous moon slipped beneath the horizon. Darkness settled around them. Tia Mason Stone shivered and wrapped her arms around her naked body. Her enhanced Chanku vision gave her the ability to see in the almost total darkness as her husband and bonded mate, Lucien Stone, stashed the duffle bag filled with their clothing beneath a fallen tree.
He stood up, straightened, and stretched his arms over his head. Then he smiled, reached for Tia and pulled her into a warm embrace. His body was big and solid, and his muscles rippled in all the right places. The thick mat of hair covering his chest tickled her erect nipples and brushed the side of her cheek when she hugged him back.
She couldn’t stop the soft sigh that escaped her lips. Was this really the right choice? Times were not safe and all their lives were at risk.
Luc nuzzled the side of her neck and planted a soft kiss below her ear. He’d been eavesdropping on her thoughts again.
“I love you. You love me. And face it, sweetheart, I’m not getting any younger.”
Sometimes, Tia almost wished that the choice to make babies wasn’t entirely up to her. Most Chanku females felt empowered by their ability to chose when to release an egg for procreation. Not Tia. She was terrified. So many things could go wrong…but that was life, wasn’t it?
Luc was right. He was fifteen years older than she was, and it wasn’t fair to make him wait any longer. They’d been bonded mates for a year now, and married for almost three months. He’d been hinting about babies ever since her father had told Tia she was destined to have two daughters—little girls with her mother’s sass and brass.
Luc really wanted those baby girls. One at a time, of course, but she knew he was ready for fatherhood.
Just as she was almost certain she was ready to become a mother.
Tonight Tia’s heat was upon her. If she conceived now, her baby would come in the spring. The timing was right. Shoving her fears aside, Tia shifted. Luc met her, nose to nose in the wild darkness on the western slopes of Mt. Tamalpais. Tia yipped, snapped at his shoulder, and took off at a full run.
She’d mate with him on the mountain tonight, and damn it all, she’d release an egg, but he was gonna have to work for it.
The night was magic and Luc could have raced through the darkness forever. The pressures of running Pack Dynamics meant they rarely had a chance to run together on the mountain. Cautious trips through Golden Gate Park were the closest he’d been to anything remotely forested in ages, but tonight was special.
Tonight they intended to conceive their first child. He’d be damned if any child of Luc and Tia Stone’s would get her start from a furtive mating behind stunted shrubs in a city park, with both of them afraid someone could come upon them at any time.
He’d much rather be high in the mountains at their cabin near Mt. Lassen, but there’d been one job after an other and he’d not been able to break away. Plus, Tia’s students needed her more than most—all of them had special needs, and it was difficult to find a decent substitute who could give them the same loving attention as his wife.
His wife. So few of the Chanku actually went through with a legal marriage. The mating bond, after all, was for life. But the minute Luc had slipped a ring on Tia’s finger—a ring she rarely wore because she knew she’d lose it when she shifted—he’d felt a connection even deeper than their mating bond. A connection that somehow validated all the terrible things that had gone on before.
To think that this beautiful woman, one of the only pure-blood shapeshifters he knew of, had a heart big enough to forgive him. After all, he’d been the one who fired the bullet that killed her mother. It might have been an honest mistake, an act carried out in the line of duty as a dedicated San Francisco cop, but it was still a terrible tragedy. One he would never truly be free of.
Camille, Tia’s mother, had prophesized the birth of two little girls. Maybe, just maybe, those little girls would somehow take away